A Moroccan convicted as an accessory to murder in the September 11, 2001 attacks made an emotional declaration of innocence as a court opened hearings Friday to set his sentence.Judges could sentence Mounir el-Motassadeq, a friend of three of the suicide pilots, to as long as 15 years in prison in the latest chapter of a tangled, five-year legal saga.In November, a federal appeals court ruled that judges in Hamburg wrongly acquitted el Motassadeq in 2005 of direct involvement in the attacks, even as they sentenced him to seven years in prison for belonging to a terrorist group.The appeals court convicted el-Motassadeq as an accessory to the murder of 246 passengers and crew members aboard the aircraft used in the attacks, and ordered the Hamburg state court to set a new sentence.... http://www.cnn.com

National Guard troops working at an observatory post near the Mexican border were forced to flee after being approached by a group of armed individuals, authorities said.The event occurred about 11 p.m. Wednesday at one of the National Guard entrance identification team posts near Sasabe, said National Guard Sgt. Edward Balaban.He said the troops withdrew safely, no shots were fired and no one suffered injuries.U.S. Border Patrol officials are investigating the incident and trying to determine who the armed people were, what they were doing and why they approached the post before retreating to Mexico.The incident occurred in the west desert corridor between Nogales and Lukeville in the vicinity of Sasabe, Balaban said."We don't know exactly how many because obviously it took place in the dark," Balaban said. "Nobody was able to get an accurate count."The Guard troops are not allowed to apprehend illegal entrants...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,241783,00.html

Ethiopian helicopters, helped by US intelligence, nearly hit fleeing Somali Islamist leaders who abandoned their last stronghold south of Somalia, officials have said. They said Thursday that four helicopters which struck positions three kilometres (1.8 miles) inside Kenya, "nearly hit three off-road vehicles we strongly believed to be carrying the Islamist leaders," said a top Kenyan official, citing intelligence.The trucks were inside Somali territory but some of the bombs from the attack fell on the Kenyan side of the border.US naval forces, based in Djibouti, this week joined the hunt for the Islamist militants with suspected Al-Qaeda ties. The Kenyan official said the three vehicles "were being trailed by a US satelite and all indications are that the (Islamists) were inside."Four helicopters dropped six bombs on Tuesday at positions about 17 kilometres (11 miles) south of the Kenyan border post of Liboi, police confirmed....http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070104/wl_africa_afp/somaliaunrestethiopia_070104092712

Bush is likely to link any short-term increase in U.S. troop levels in Iraq to political milestones or other conditions, a key Senate Democrat said on Thursday, saying he might consider backing such a "surge" if those conditions are right. Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin also predicted the Republican president would soon find a way to end the "open-ended commitment" of U.S. troops to Iraq, even if Bush does propose a short-term boost in forces. "I can't believe the president is simply going to say, 'We're going to increase troops in Iraq,"' Levin told reporters outside the Senate. "It's likely the president would add something of a conditionality to it." "The (recent congressional) election is far too clear, that the public wants to change course and find a way out of Iraq and not get in deeper in Iraq," said Levin, who is the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.The White House says Bush is preparing to unveil a new strategy on Iraq that could come next week....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070104/pl_nm/iraq_usa_troops_dc_3

Two state government institutions are studying the possibility of giving Mexican migrants GPS locators that could be used to call the U.S. border patrol for help. The locators would be given to migrants who are thinking of crossing the border, and would give U.S. border patrol agents the location of those in trouble. The U.S. government has yet to sign off on the project, which is still in the planning stages. Hundreds of Mexicans are killed each year trying to sneak illegally into the U.S. Many are lost or succumb to heat exhaustion in the desert, while others are killed trying to swim across the Rio Grande river or hide in vehicles. Supporters of the initiative argue that it could save hundreds of lives. Among those looking at the possibility is Jesus Torreblanca, who works for Puebla state's Commission for the Attention of Migrants....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,241677,00.html

After years of intrigue, secrecy and much heated debate, some of Japan’s most mysterious monuments will be opened up for public inspection for the first time. The imposing burial mounds of Japan’s ancient emperors have lain almost untouched for as many as 17 centuries, but after pressure from historians the Imperial Household Agency agreed to let archaeologists get their hands dirty. As piles of earth and stone dotted around the Japanese countryside go, the mounds may appear unimpressive, but what they conceal could hold the key to unlocking Japan’s imperial past. There were more than 200,000 ancient burial mounds, or kofun, in Japan, dating back to the 4th century. They come in all shapes and sizes and, though most contain only the remains of local dignitaries, some of the biggest, and the most controversial, are revered as the tombs of Japan’s most famous emperors. ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2530403,00.html